Now That We Are Healthy Again

Sister van Hoff had her birthday a few days ago. She got lots of cards.  Her sister Barb sent a great one.  Barb wanted to remind Diane of North Carolina.  The author of the card "nailed it". 

To celebrate on the morning of her birthday, I fixed cinnamon biscuits for the Seminary students (also fixed some gluten-free, sugar-free items for two of our eight youth) and surprised Sister van Hoff with a piece of paleo chocolate cake with a strawberry. We all sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

That evening we had the Sister missionaries over for dinner. That made for a special birthday dinner.

The next day I made a breakfast lunch for our department at work. Some were not there so the total, including us was eight.  I fixed a big spread: southern biscuits with omelette (I had a Paleo wrap and Sister van Hoff only had the omelette), grapes, pineapple, strawberries, carrot sticks, zucchini sticks, milk and orange juice. I also served a cinnamon coffee cake and for Sister van Hoff, me, and two others who are diabetic, I made a paleo, allspice coffee cake.

We have learned that here in Germany, instead of others preparing a birthday celebration, the person having the birthday prepares it. Interesting concept don't you think?

Yesterday we went to the Architecture Museum with another missionary couple, the Mellors.  Every 4th Saturday some of the museums in town are open for free.  It was a great activity for a blustery fridged day. 

At the museum, Diane is standing next to a model made out of cardboard.

This is not a picture but an actual model of a row street in England.

The Mellors have a unique mission. Though they live in the same apartment building as us, their mission really isolates them. They serve the Europe Area like we, do but they do not work for the Area Office. They work for Family History, but report to the Mission President. (We report to the Area Presidency.)Unlike other missionary couples, they have no TV, no house phone, and no car. In fact, they have to ride public transportation to work every day. Contact with other missionaries is infrequent. They don’t belong to our zone and, because they don’t have a car, it is difficult for them to get to their zone activities.

At work they are isolated, also. They are not allowed to wear their missionary badges. They work in a seven-story building (an archive) with only four other non-member people. One person cannot speak and the others speak little or no English. They are from other parts of the world.

Their job requires them to work in the dark except for a direct light over their desk. The work consists of them finding names printed in books, newspapers, and other sources and photographing them. Elder Mellor told me that, if this were a career job, he would would not want it; however, because of the spiritual experiences he has had, he loves his work and, if given the opportunity, he would come in six days a week. He explained how extremely tedious and unexciting the work is. It takes a lot to position the paper exactly right before the photo is taken, but it is nothing more than setup, take a picture, and setup for another picture--all day in a dark room with no one to talk to.

What he has experienced spiritually is amazing. A couple of weeks after he and his wife started doing this work, he told me he heard a distinct voice tell him how critical this work is. He said he wrote down the words he heard and some time he would share them with me.

He told me of the following experience he had on another occasion. The names he is supposed to photograph are underlined in red. It was near the end of a day and his next document was a newspaper that was difficult to open without it falling apart. He carefully unfolded the paper, but did not see any names underlined in red. He then folded it back up when suddenly he heard a voice which said, “Don’t forget about me.” He re-opened the paper and at the very bottom of the page there was a small thin, barely noticeable red line under a name. Interestingly it was the name of a Catholic priest.

He said he has had other experiences like that, but what really keeps him going is the overall feeling he has when he leaves work for the day. He has this feeling of having helped thousands of people in only one day. Between he and his wife they do nearly 6,000 names each day.

Elder and Sister Mellor

What a fascinating mission he has. It must be wonderful to be so spiritually close to your work. For us, it does not manifest itself so clearly. I know that we are led by the spirit to correct technical problems that are emailed to us from other parts of Europe or whenever a senior missionary comes to us with a computer problem, but it is nowhere the same as hearing the voice of someone from the other side.

All in all, it is wonderful to have this opportunity to serve the Lord at this time in our lives. We could be back home, watching TV or busying ourselves with something or another, but here we are not only having wonderful spiritual experiences for ourselves but also hearing firsthand experiences from others.

We love you and pray for you every day.

Sick And Tired Of Being Sick And TIred

It has been nearly 3 weeks since the last post. Would you believe there isn't much to report? Actually there is, but some things of interest to us might not be of interest to anyone else. 

Sister van Hoff and I have been extremely sick these past six days. It is believed that we have the flu even though many of our symptoms as different.  The one constant for both of us is weakness. Let me share with you how bad it got.

A couple of days ago I was talking to my sister and I told her that we were just going to hole up in our apartment and tough it out. She immediately called our younger sister who is a nurse. It wasn't long until she had me on the phone. She insisted that we go to the doctor. She began telling me how people are dying from this influenza in America; not just babies and aged, but teenagers and young adults. Well, that was enough to worry me. Besides, when Diane and I were caregivers to my folks, my sister would be our medical advisor and she was never wrong. She was right about this, too.

I made arrangements to take us to the doctor that evening. Up to that point I didn't realize how bad off Diane was. As we got ready to go, she informed me that she didn't feel she could make it to the elevator and out to the car on her own. She asked me to get her a wheelchair.

Between that request and what my sister had told me, I was really worried. There is a wheelchair at the Europe Area Office building, but I felt too weak to walk over there myself. Elder Nelson, one of the missionary doctors, was kind enough to bring it over.

We tried to stay as far away as possible from any contact with anyone.  I got her down to the car.  Riding in the wheelchair and also in the car, Diane was folded over with her head in her hands on her lap.  I have never seen her like this.  I was worried what we would have to deal with at the other end of this trip.  I know that parking spaces in town are a premium and that the closest parking garage was several blocks away, and it was bitter cold outside.  Fortunately, the Lord, in His tender mercy prepared the way.

We turned onto the street for the doctor's office and immediately started looking for a parking space. We had no clue how far down the street we had to go to get there. After driving a few blocks and finding nothing, I decided to take the first open spot. I was surprised to find one and took it. As I got out of the car, I noticed that we were only 30 feet from the front door of the doctor's building. Coincidence? I think not.

It was still a challenge. These are old buildings with no elevators. We had to walk up two long flights of stairs to get to the office.

I think we are doing better now, but, since Tuesday, we have been to the same doctor three times. Diane has had three infusions and is on an antibiotic.

On happier notes, we invited our friends Elder and Sister Skoubye to go to a castle with us the weekend before all this started. Here are some of the pictures of that day.

Passing from one wall of defense to the next.

Trying it on for size.

Inside the Alsbach Castle wall.  It is very steep on the other side,. 

Castle tower.

This past week was transfers.  We will miss Elder Robinson and especially Elder Hamilton.  He arrived in Frankfurt only a couple of weeks after we arrived.

Elder Robinson on the left and Elder Hamilton next to Diane

Guess who joined us for Friday Date Night?  Yep.  The Skoubyes went grocery shopping at the Metro with us.  It is similar to Sam's Club.

Date Night at the Metro.  Not quite like the same as the Met in New York.

Last Saturday we attended a convert baptism. Diane played the piano and I gave the closing prayer. It was the baptism of Daniel from Nigeria. We have been a couple of times with the sister missionaries when he was taught, as have many others.  The baptismal service was wonderful and we were grateful to be part of it.

Hopefully in a week we will be back to normal and get back to posting weekly. We love and miss you all.

Oh! Did I mention? One of my son's just got engaged. Okay, that came out of the blue. Didn't see that coming.